...a contemporary dance showing 31 October - 1 November 2013

Don’t try to analyse this.

Respond to the mystery of the dance. Listen to the silence. Trust yourself.

Soak in the dark and light of the stories of belonging. Look for the shades of colour:

the red of life in the green of what is growing

in a world that seeks to grasp the ungraspable and make sense of the

incomprehensible.

Let go, simply

be. 

Photography by Jerrod Lim © Remnant Dance 2013

The Red in the Green

By Priscilla Chan

We falter

 along the red warning signs in this seemingly green-pastured life.

Methinks I arose, red in the eyes, from my well-feathered green nest,

Searching for a fiery red companion to push my wings in the right direction, that is, skyward to greener lands.

But thou art asleep!

The others have spread their red wings in what I recalled to be a green atmosphere.

Behold the swelling red humiliation in this green deplorable ignorant me.

In my human form, I am still as clueless as my former reflection. 

I witnessed your hand separate the Red sea in the middle and expose the greenness of the thriving seabed-

Yet I questioned and lost my faith.

Awake o slumbering red-less hearts soaked in green waste.

These red cherubs rise to fight in the battlefield for us green-eyed souls.

It's about time. 

Pull up the red card, I'm gonna leave this man green in his face,

I am the leader of this red team fighting in this race 

For the greening (grinning) populace.

Special thanks to the Fremantle Festival 2013 and Little Creatures Brewing

29 June 2013

We began with inviting dialogue on the relevance of creative practice for impoverished communites, through spoken word, dance, song and music.  Remnant Dance artists told stories through performances and speakers Lucinda Coleman, Jarrod McKenna and Andrew Rogers offered different perspectives on complex yet engaging issues. A gathering of thoughtful, intelligent audience members asked pertinent questions, made insightful comments and moved the conversation along - so that we all were inspired and challenged to integrate various aspects of our lives in ways both creative and pragmatic.  In the words of our MC Tim Bowles, all we need to know next is 'when is the next Forum?!'   ...a wonderful evening!!

By Lucinda Coleman, June 2013

When you see glass panes, do you look through the transparent plane or do you see yourself reflected in the glass?

                                                                                                            * Yangon, Myanmar: abandoned glass factory

The concept:

The idea of glass being both a front for reflection and engagement with what lies beyond offers a beautiful metaphor for the front along which we, as individuals engage in conversation with each other.  What do you wish to say and when you do articulate your ideas, how do I meet with you on this borderline of shared dialogue?

Remnant Dance’s existing partnership with MyKids acts as a catalyst for conversations across spheres of practice.  As artists, we find ourselves exploring movement ideas along our ever-changing frontal and dorsal planes of action through collective dance-making practices.  Through shared story-telling with our MyKids partners, we find ourselves drawn to the frontlines of the Burmese experience of life in Yangon, Myanmar.

We consider the Burmese children living in an orphanage in Yangon, as though looking through a glass plane.  They seem far away; there are smudges on the glass.

The closer I look, the more I see through and the less I see of me.  I move closer.

What would happen if we shattered the glass plane?  How would we navigate the fragmented glass pieces?  What would happen should we dance in the debris, speaking our movement language as the children speak theirs?

At the intersection of different fronts; the face-to-face encounter between ‘your’ ideas and mine, there is the possibility for unexpected encounters in the shared dialogue. What if we could share the story of the dialogue that emerges in the glass debris?

What if we filmed the exploration of the fronts and backs of the danced conversation?

How we hope to move from the conceptual to the practical:

Remnant Dance artists intend to make a site-specific dance film within the Myanmar community that the charity organisation, MyKids supports.

This film will be made through a process that encourages interconnection and celebrates interdependence in making dance committed to social justice and community. Inspired by the Glass Palace Chronicle; an old Burmese historical work commissioned by King Bagyidaw in 1829, the work will be filmed in an abandoned glass factory, using panes of glass as a metaphor for the face to face encounters; where interconnection facilitates a shared dialogue.

What might be seen reflected in planes of glass?  How might our connection with the children invite reflection on their stories?  What happens to communication on such a front when it is shattered?

Remnant Dance artists will begin developing movement phrases in the studio in 2013, in preparation for a location shoot in Yangon, Myanmar early in 2014.

The made work later hopes to invite a broader engagement, perhaps even from a global audience and a responsive interpretation of that which is the residual remnants of dance.

9-18 April 2013

Photography by Katie Chown; in China

By Lucinda Coleman; March 2013

Photography by Alix Hamilton & Mary Avery

Found things surprise us. Even if we know what we are looking for, what is found is not often what we hoped for or even anticipated.

The season of Remnants found in you uncovered treasures: unexpected and beautiful. New opportunities for choreographers to make dance work led to new collaborations between artists which led to new experiences for all involved in performances in Perth, Western Australia and in Adelaide, South Australia.

The Remnant Dance triple bill featured Katie Chown’s O-Sea, Juanita Jelleyman’s Shade:less and Lucinda Coleman’s Spring: costuming for each designed by Kate Emily Townsend. Guest dancers Ben Chown, Samantha Coleman and Andrew Haycroft joined the core Remnant Dance artists, for what proved to be an engaging and extraordinary rehearsal and performance experience. Musicians from the Mahlot Sring Quartet enriched the performances with their wonderful collaboration throughout the season.

Remnants found in you: 15 February 2013 @ Fly By Night Musicians Club, WA…

An enthusiastic audience of 169 cheered and applauded throughout the international premiere of the triple bill, which also included musical improvisation by Alex Hey and the Mahlot String Quartet. An additional piece of musical and danced improvisation by dancers Ellen Avery, Andrew Haycroft, Charity Ng and Esther van Baren to cellist Alex Hey’s melodious improvisation rounded out the evening with wonder and charm.

Remnants found in you: 19-21 February 2013 @ the Nexus Cabaret as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival in SA…

Over three nights in an intimate Cabaret setting, the stories of what was being discovered and uncovered deepened with each evening’s performance. Audience members and critics all responded to different aspects of the performances each evening, but one thing was clear: community was created amongst the performers, which spilled over into the broader community of audience. As one patron wrote in response to the performances:

“Responded to them all in different ways. Loved the medley of bodies in O-Sea, loved the movement from isolation to community in Shade:less and also the body contact in all 3 pieces - gave sense of community” (audience feedback comment 21/3/13).

We found many things in sharing our stories; perhaps the most extraordinary being that of intimacy within an ever-expanding community of artists and audiences, alike.

Thank you to the Department of Culture and the Arts (Western Australia) for their support.